Many sowings as weather improves in April’s second half
You can now make many sowings as the weather improves, at last.
So far, it’s been a difficult spring for gardening. Too much wind and many cold nights. Above all a lack of sunshine. In England at least.
Perhaps for you it has been better and I hope so. In fact from 1st to 9th April, we had more sunshine than in all of March. And temperatures are inching upwards, although there is ground frost as I write this on 15th April.
I’ve just published a newsletter to subscribers of my twice monthly letter on Mailchimp, with many details about how to cope with the weather and what to do in the coming few weeks. You can find much more about this in the newsletter’s browser version.
No dig benefits
This spring has really illustrated the beauty of no dig, for ease of access and strength of growth in difficult conditions. The first photo below illustrates this, of my two trial beds.
We have done so much planting already, there is plenty more to do and always the weather is not a hindrance because undisturbed soil does not get muddy or stick to your boots.
The compost heaps have gone up more slowly than usual over winter, but now the availability of materials is accelerating fast. The one which Edward filmed on 9th April is just finished on 14th April, when we spread a little woodchip and soil over the top and then cardboard to keep in warmth. However that can encourage rats so don’t use a cover if you’re worried about them.
Propagation is very important at this stage for cucurbits in particular, and all warmth loving plants.
Melons are growing strongly with two large cotyledon leaves. Yesterday we potted them into 7 cm pots, 11 days after sowing.
All my books have information on sowing and growing, different according to each title.
We are running some nice offers and the Calendar 2023 price is easing down!
Cucumbers for growing under cover, similar method to courgettes. Be careful not to overwater cucumber seedlings, and it’s the same for melons.
Basil – either multisow or sow in a seed tray to prick out. Or take root cuttings from shop-bought plants – ideas also in this video.Winter squash are also similar and my preferred dates are 20th-25th April.
I am often asked if it’s fine to grow different varieties together and for sure it is, the fruits grow true according to each variety you had sown. The only pollination effect is on the seeds inside each fruit, not the fruit itself.
Sow these too
Sunflowers, dwarf French marigold, zinnias and other tender annual flowers.
Leeks direct, thickly in rows to transplant later, or multisow 4 per cell.
Beetroot – multisow 3 seeds per cell and thin to four seedlings, or sow direct.
Broad beans direct, or one per cell – your final chance for sowing to grow large harvests; because later sowings give a smaller result.
Peas (for shoots and pods) direct, or 1–2 per cell and asap for best harvests with fewer pea moths and less mildew in summer.
True spinach direct, or multisow 2–3 per cell. Sow before 20th April.
Lettuce direct to thin, or in trays to prick out.
Salad onions direct, or multisow 8–10 per cell.
Cabbage, calabrese and cauliflower in trays to prick out.
Radish direct, or multisow 4–5 per cell.
Celery in trays to prick out after about 20 days. It needs light to germinate, so scatter seeds on top of already moistened compost, and then put no more compost on top but lay a glass sheet over the seed tray.
Chard and leaf beet – multisow 2 seeds per cell.
Parsley, coriander and dill direct, or multisow 2–3 per cell.
OUTSIDE (and see above)
Pop in seed potatoes of all kinds. Use a trowel to make a slit in the ground, pull the surface soil and compost towards you, then drop in the seed potato, with its top about 5 cm/2 in below surface level. Use the same method for Jerusalem artichokes.
In June you may need to drop a little more compost over second early and maincrop potato plants, as a kind of earthing up method, to prevent surface potatoes going green. Also you can do similar before any forecast late frost, or simply pull compost from around each potato to cover the leaves, on the evening before it might freeze.
Sow carrots and parsnips direct into drills in your surface compost, 15–20 cm/6–8 in apart for carrot, 39cm/12in for parsnip. Drop a few radish seeds in with carrot or parsnip, to mark the lines and have a few bonus radish in six weeks time. Lay fleece over the newly sown area.
More info in my newsletter
I have to say that the second half of April was a bit of a false dawn temperature wise: promises of 20C for a few days failed to materialise and we have had plenty of rain too. Finally, the 29th and 30th of the month are being pleasantly warm and sunny (18-19C highs). Apparently after three or four days of this, temperatures will drop back down to 14-15C. I can only predict that this will be good for growth of young onions, shallots and salad onions!
I tend to use Asparagus harvests and apple tree flowering as the test of how April was – they tend to respond significantly to a cool April by being somewhat delayed. My first asparagus spears poked through in the final week of the month, but no harvests yet. My apple trees are now starting to blossom fully in a species-specific way – Cox Orange Pippin and a stepover Discovery seem to be about a week behind our half standard of unknown cultivar: the big tree is peaking now, the others will peak in around seven days. This is a bit behind how things occurred the past decade.
The other acid test for April warmth is how many times you need to mow the grass! So far, only two cuts of the back garden and three of the roadside patch out front this spring. And no, I don’t have a meadow/jungle slowly forming!!
Not a response to this blog, but a testimonial to No Dig, as recommended by me to my brother for his Nottingham allotment. He decided to get some rotted manure last year and convert one part of the plot to No Dig. This is from his message to me today.
Stimulated by yesterday’s almost completely cloudless skies I spent several hours on the allotment, putting in the 5th and final row of potatoes (10 Pink Fir Apple and 11 Desiree), 30 shallot and 161 onion sets and, with [Son]’s help, making a determined assault on the remaining very weedy bits. Where I left ground undug last year and covered it with 6 inches of manure, the weeding has been almost effortless. The rest is awful.
So it DOES work, Charles!
Nice to hear Alan! Great that he has the comparative parts on his allotment.
Dear Charles
I always religiously follow your very helpful online sowing timeline. It would be even better and really helpful if you could elaborate when you generically refer to early & late brassicas, early & late cabbages etc. I always find this confusing and have to search around to find out which varieties fall into what category. Keep up the good work and thank you 😀
Thanks Rachel and that’s a fair point. The reason I don’t is how it would lead to a long list each time and detract from the overall main purpose of information which is the sowing dates.
Perhaps I could just say brassicas for summer harvests, that’s probably clearer.
Hi Charles. Something I’ve wondered in a vague sort of way for a while now: On your videos it often looks like the level of the lawn at the edge of the beds is a good two or three inches above the level of the beds themselves. I can see that that would make the edge maintenance easier, but how do you get to that point having simply laid cardboard and compost over grass initially? Do you do anything particular to get that offset level effect or does it just happen organically (excuse the pun) as time goes by?
Hi Rob,
I am interested that you have noticed such a difference because it’s not the case. The path level where it meets grass is about the same and often if there is woodchip on top of any of the soil of the path edge, that makes it high. Which as you suggest, makes maintenance difficult. We certainly never dig out any path edge.
What has happened is that the grass has risen a little because of occasional blowing by wind of woodchip, even compost v occasionally, onto the grass edge.
Hi Charles,
What do you mean by sow direct? Does that mean sow directly into the garden compost outside?
Thanks for all your info!
That is what I mean but I would phrase it differently.
Sowing directly into the surface of any bed or soil, whatever the surface mulch might be. Usually it will be a thin layer of compost which is all the time being taken down by soil life as the soil therefore rises towards the surface
Charles , thanks for all your info. it is a great help. One thing I would like to know is which is the more important for tomato seedlings heat or light ? At present I keep mine in an unheated conservatory overnight and if temperature exceeds 10c during the day I move them outside into full daylight .Am I doing the right thing?
Rgds Brian
Thanks Brian, and that sounds good. In fact, tomato seedlings are tolerant of cold conditions and need full light, so unless it’s freezing, I would keep them in the greenhouse all the time.
Thanks Charles, another question for you. Whilst scrolling through u tube I came across “fluid seed sowing” seems to be a good idea , have you tried it?
Brian
Yes Brian, in 1983 and ’84.
I found it quite a bit of extra time and effort, for marginal advantage. It was fun to try!
I’m curious about the fleece with a double wire. You mentioned it here are in a recent video I believe, but have you shown how that works yet? I’m very curious if it would be easier to cover and uncover that way.
I’m in Minnesota, USA, we’re still just barely starting spring here, but hopefully will catch up to your progress soon, and I believe our last frost date is similar around May 10th.
Thanks for your information!
Hi Amy
It’s simply that you push wires into the soil on either side of your covered bed, so that they push down on the cover and help to hold it in place during winds. It’s no easier to uncover in my experience.
I hope that the weather warms up for you soon and before you know it, it will be summer!